A Momentary Lapse of Reason - Panthers 4 Hurricanes 3

Hell officially froze over Friday night as the Hurricanes somehow officially blew their one time huge division lead and the Florida Panthers beat them 4-3. There are no excuses. The team had 9 powerplay opportunities to none for Florida, including two 5 on 3’s. They outshot the kittykats 46-17 and still couldn’t beat them. What happened? It will require more careful thought and analysis, but a few things certainly did go wrong. Cam Ward didn’t have his best game of the season, but it wasn’t all his fault. While the defense did very well to limit the shot total to 17, they allowed too many breakaway chances and odd man rushes. Even though the Canes had almost triple the number of shots, Florida’s chances were of better quality. Caniacs and bloggers alike will most likely have several months to determine what went wrong because there is no way that hell will freeze over again Saturday night in Washington. Some other things do stick out to this blogger. Ray Whitney, Justin Williams ... (link)